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Bush Plan: "Enron for Everybody"; Bush's "Threat" to Daschle on Hearings; NPR Retracted Smear; Russert: "The Late Newt Gingrich" 6) Letterman's "Top Ten Surprises in Last Night's State of the Union Address."
Correction:
Due to an error by a colleague in the early morning hours confusing two
high-profile Davids in the media, which I did not catch, the January 30
CyberAlert mis-attributed two post-State of the Union comments on
Nightline to Washington Post reporter David Broder. They were actually
said by David Gergen, Editor at Large of U.S. News & World Report.
Gibson's last question to Daschle on the
January 30 Good Morning America, the morning after the State of the Union
address:
Reporter Claire Shipman speculated: "The problem with the Enron scandal for Bush and the White House is less that the White House may have done something wrong or improper, and more that the scandal simply serves to remind the public of Bush's so-called negatives before 9/11, that he may be too cozy with business interests, that some people may think he prefers big corporations to the little guy." On the January 30 show, co-host Charles Gibson
wondered: "Claire, what struck you? He didn't mention Enron by name,
but it was sure there indirectly."
Yes, everyone would then invest all their money in one company which would soon go bankrupt. On Wednesday's Inside Politics, Carlson complained: "It was Bush that used the recession to justify tax cuts that don't really make very much sense. And, in listening to the speech last night, you cannot figure out a way for all this spending, including spending we were unprepared for on the military and to fight the war, and the deficits that we are now facing. The surplus is gone, deficit spending. And so, even if the recession is over -- and I think it is a huge if -- there is still going to be a spending crunch that is not going to justify the tax cuts that the President wants to stick with." After praising Bush's remarks about fighting
terrorism, Carlson turned critical -- from the left, of course: That comment prompted laughter from Tucker Carlson, the co-host of Crossfire with whom she appeared. What more can you do than laugh at such liberal paranoid wackiness?
On the January 22 Morning Edition, Kestenbaum had reported: "Two of the anthrax letters were sent to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy, both Democrats. One group who had a gripe with Daschle and Leahy is the Traditional Values Coalition, which, before the attacks, had issued a press release criticizing the Senators for trying to remove the phrase 'so help me God' from the oath." Kestenbaum continued: "The Traditional Values Coalition, however, told me the FBI had not contacted them and then issued a press release saying NPR was in the pocket of the Democrats and trying to frame them. But investigators are thinking along these lines. FBI agents won't discuss the case, but the people they have spoken with will." On Tuesday, CNSNews.com's Jim Burns reported that NPR's pull back was read during Tuesday's Morning Edition. NPR spokesperson Jess Sarmiento relayed the statement to CNSNews.com: "A story last week about the ongoing anthrax investigation mentioned the Traditional Values Coalition, whom we called to ask if they had been contacted by the FBI. They said they had not since there is no evidence that they were or should be investigated. It was inappropriate to name them on the air." CNS.com's Burns noted, however, that "Rev. Lou Sheldon, Chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition wasn't impressed with NPR's statement. 'They have not apologized, neither have they retracted, neither have they said they were sorry. They have simply tried to further distance themselves from the wrong that they have done.'" For the entire CNSNews.com story: In a column titled, "Those Dastardly
'Fundamentalists,'" MRC President Brent Bozell took up the NPR
incident as well as a recent case in which a Washington Post reporter
equated "religious conservatives" in the U.S. with the Taliban.
To read the column:
Russert's reference to Gingrich came as the NBC News VP and Washington Bureau Chief began to recount a humorous tale about how after Russert had prayed as a Catholic to God for a Buffalo Bills Super Bowl victory, and yet the Bills still lost to the Dallas Cowboys, Tom Brokaw joked to Russert that God is a Southern Baptist. Russert started his anecdote: "I have been to four Super Bowls. The last was at the Georgia Dome. The Bills were playing against the Dallas Cowboys. I was on Meet the Press -- I brought the program down there, interviewed the late Newt Gingrich, the late Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Sam Nunn the former Senator..." After the commercial break, when Russert had left the set, Letterman cautioned: "I want to clarify a couple of things here. We talked this over and he said 'the late Newt Gingrich,' Tim Russert referred to him as 'the late Newt Gingrich,' meaning former Speaker of the House -- and he's not dead, we just confirmed that."
10. President's opener, "big ups to the peeps in my West Coast
crew."
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The
administration probably has some pretty reasonable concerns about
procedures and sources being exposed by public hearings into the
shortcomings of intelligence failures before September 11th, but ABC's
Charles Gibson's portrayed the administration's wish, that such
hearings be closed, and that they might not cooperate with open hearings,
as a "threat" made against Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.
The
morning following the State of the Union address, ABC News remained
disturbed that President Bush had not mentioned Enron by name, MRC analyst
Jessica Anderson observed.
Time
magazine's Margaret Carlson again denounced Bush's tax cuts during an
appearance Wednesday afternoon on CNN as she whined about how "he is
not spending this huge popularity he has to do anything that is not in
keeping with the conservative dreams of his party." She also
preposterously maintained that if Bush were to succeed in allowing people
to invest a portion of their Social Security money in the stock market,
"we'll simply make an Enron for everybody in the country."
NPR has
conceded that it was "inappropriate" for reporter David
Kestenbaum to have suggested that the Traditional Values Coalition was a
suspect in the anthrax letters sent to Senators Daschle and Leahy.
"The
late Newt Gingrich." Appearing Wednesday night on CBS's Late Show
with David Letterman, NBC's Tim Russert referred to "the late Newt
Gingrich, the late Speaker Newt Gingrich." Concerned that viewers
might think Gingrich had really passed away, after an ad break Letterman
assured his audience that Gingrich is "not dead, we just confirmed
that."
From
moments later on the very same January 30 Late Show with David Letterman,
the "Top Ten Surprises in Last Night's State of the Union
Address." Copyright 2002 by Worldwide Pants, Inc.